Pasta Experiment

I love to eat!  Who doesn't?  I eat when I'm stressed, when I'm bored, and when I'm neither.  During the later years in high school and college days I didn't have much to do during summer so I am often left at the house (except when I'm on vacation and the last year in college where I had summer school).  I didn't have any money so I couldn't buy anything that I wanted to eat, that was when I started to make my own (just simple ones though because I only used whatever was left on our kitchen).

Nowadays when I'm living alone, I am forced to always eat outside or just prepare something instant.  Sometimes I use that "alone" time to try dishes that I haven't made before so I wouldn't be embarrassed if it turns out bad.  When it turns out good I make it again for the family when they're home.

Yesterday I wanted to try and make Tuna Pesto Pasta for dinner, so I looked for easy recipes online and knew about Clara Ole's Cheesy Pesto Pasta Sauce and saved the rest of the ingredients on my phone.  But the pasta sauce wasn't available on the grocery store :(  I was already there and I didn't want to leave empty handed.  Plus I wanted to make something new really bad but the data on my phone was so crappy I couldn't search for other recipes.  I just trusted my gut and bought whatever was on my mind. hahahah

I just eyeballed most of this because I didn't have any recipe to guide me.  I didn't document the time but I was sure that I finished it within an hour.  So.. follow at your own risk hahahah  I am sharing this because my "experiment" went well - I took the rest at work and I was happy that my colleagues liked it!

Ingredients:

1. 250g penne pasta

2. 250g Italian sauce

3. Cream of mushroom - Campbell's wasn't available, I just used 1/2 of Knorr cream of mushroom soup instead

4. 1 Hungarian sausage 

5. 1 Onion - next time I'll add one more ;)

6. 5 cloves of garlic

7. 1 tablespoon butter

8. 1/2 cup cheese - a mix of Eden and Quickmelt

9. Ground pepper

10. Parmesan cheese (optional)

I hope I get to explain and break it down properly though.  Here it goes...

1-Cook the pasta & mushroom soup / prep other ingredients (est 15min)

While I waited for the pasta and mushroom soup to cook (just followed the instructions on the packet), I chopped the onion and garlic, sliced the sausage and grated some cheese.  I took the pasta and mushroom soup aside when it was done.  

2-Cook the sausage / mix cheese and soup (est 15min)

Using the same pot I used for cooking the pasta, I melted the butter, added the onions and the garlic, then the sausage.  When that was cooking, I added and mixed 1/2 cup cheese to the mushroom soup that I cooked earlier.  

3-Mix the sauces (est 10min)

Poured the Italian sauce to the cooking sausage.  Mixed it and covered it until it started to boil.  Poured and mixed in the mushroom-cheese sauce.

4-Mix the pasta and sauce / add remaining ingredients (est 5min)

I added and mixed the pasta with the sauce.  Turned the heat off, added pepper to taste and sprinkled parmesan cheese on top.

You could save time if you use Campbell's cream of mushroom

I forgot to include the butter and pepper

Finished product! Yey!

I think this is just a simple twist to when you make spaghetti, I don't know if other people have been doing this.  Friends have told me that they put condensed milk and/or cream when they make theirs.  I'm not a big fan of a sweeter taste in pastas so I haven't tried that when I make my own.  I'm not a fan of spicy food as well, but the touch of spice from the sausage is just right for me.

***I am not a chef and I don't always cook.  Sometimes when I do, it turns out bad.  But luckily this turned out to be good hahahah So again, follow at your own risk :) ***